MEA storage market continues growth: IDC

Double-digit figures maintained across region, says IDC

The Middle East and Africa (MEA) market for disk-storage hardware was up to $2.53bn, an 11%, year on year bump, in the second quarter of 2012, according to tracking figures released by International Data Corporation (IDC).

Terabyte capacity rose 48% over the same period, and IDC expects to see further robust growth in capacity consumption until the end of the year.

"The development of the market reflects heavy industry demand, especially from the enterprise segment, for cloud technologies, the consolidation of existing infrastructure, and the evolution of the industry towards converged solutions," said storage research analyst Arun Philip, IDC MEA.

"Most of the growth was driven by the realization of pipeline deals just before the Holy Month of Ramadan started, following extended incubation periods," he added.

Qatar topped the table of year-on-year storage growth in the GCC, while Saudi Arabia and the UAE continued to post double-digit growth. Growth in these countries was observed in the government, automotive, financial services, and petrochemicals sectors, among others and IDC attributes the growth in the UAE to its operation of Freezones.

EMC stayed top of the vendors' league, with just over 41% market share, a position largely ascribed to its strong ranking in the MEA enterprise solutions space. IBM was placed second with more than 16% market share, prompted by the recent opening of its Qatar office and Nairobi R&D operation. Netapp came third with just over 12% share, followed by HP and Dell with around 10% and 6%, respectively.